If you forget for a moment (or somehow didn't notice) the unique spectacle of HOW this film was made... it is still an absolute masterpiece of character study & a suspenseful thriller.
Brandon plays as cold & diabolical a villain as I've seen in a movie, his chilling role heightened by his easy schmoozing & the way he continues to push it just a little bit further in every scene.
The tension as he continues to move them closer & closer to the edge is unlike anything I've seen in cinema. You know in the opening 30 seconds of the movie what the tension will resolve around... yet you feel it anyway, or perhaps that much more acutely because its in plain sight from the beginning (literally & figuratively).
Phillip's part as the degenerating man-with-a-conscience is brilliant as well, he completely falls apart on screen in the most tragic & convincing ways.
But the star of the show is still Jimmy Stewart as Rupert, the only man who truly changes in this relatively short (80 some minute) thriller. His aristocratic superiority is on display at first, but as the movie unfolds, we see the "master" torn down by his "apprentice." Being confronted with the monsters he helped to create gives us the juiciest moments in the film. As he begins to realize the gravity of his careless, cold philosophy we finally get some heart & humanity exposed from beneath the horror.
Similar psychopathic monsters have been on screen since - American Psycho & Silence of the Lambs come to mind as great examples - but never does a monster face its maker in such an intimate & intense moment.
Nor do any of the "killing for fun" contemporaries find a way to bring out humanist ideals in the end like Rope. Which means Rope alone seems to expose & condemn the actual evil in these villains - while movies like "Silence of the Lambs" & "American Psycho" seem to celebrate & idealize their blood-lusters. Those movies (which I hold in high esteem) now feel like cheap "ambulance chasing" thrills in comparison to the final confrontation here. Even the final seconds of Rope, the quiet, still moment in the apartment, is full of weighty implications. I can think of very few scenes in any movie that do so little, yet say so much.
But on top of all of this, the film is shot in "real time" as if one cut, a technical marvel for the time & a huge acting challenge for any time. If this movie were half as good, it would still be a miracle that they could pull it off in such a cinematic style... the fact that it IS excellent regardless makes it all that much more impressive that it was shot that way. 1917 recently garnered a lot of attention for its one-cut style, like Birdman a few years ago. Neither of those movies (again, both of which I loved) would be nearly as good without that filming/editing flair. But I think Rope could be nearly as good without it - which makes me that much more impressed that Hitchcock managed this in 1948. A style that is still wowing audiences & winning Oscars 70 years later.
I'm not sure how I rank this compared to Hitchcock's other top masterpieces (which I'd consider Vertigo and Rear Window). But it might have just become my favorite pure thriller.
If you haven't seen it, watch it. Set aside the mere 80 minutes & truly watch it. You won't be disappointed.
Brandon plays as cold & diabolical a villain as I've seen in a movie, his chilling role heightened by his easy schmoozing & the way he continues to push it just a little bit further in every scene.
The tension as he continues to move them closer & closer to the edge is unlike anything I've seen in cinema. You know in the opening 30 seconds of the movie what the tension will resolve around... yet you feel it anyway, or perhaps that much more acutely because its in plain sight from the beginning (literally & figuratively).
Phillip's part as the degenerating man-with-a-conscience is brilliant as well, he completely falls apart on screen in the most tragic & convincing ways.
But the star of the show is still Jimmy Stewart as Rupert, the only man who truly changes in this relatively short (80 some minute) thriller. His aristocratic superiority is on display at first, but as the movie unfolds, we see the "master" torn down by his "apprentice." Being confronted with the monsters he helped to create gives us the juiciest moments in the film. As he begins to realize the gravity of his careless, cold philosophy we finally get some heart & humanity exposed from beneath the horror.
Similar psychopathic monsters have been on screen since - American Psycho & Silence of the Lambs come to mind as great examples - but never does a monster face its maker in such an intimate & intense moment.
Nor do any of the "killing for fun" contemporaries find a way to bring out humanist ideals in the end like Rope. Which means Rope alone seems to expose & condemn the actual evil in these villains - while movies like "Silence of the Lambs" & "American Psycho" seem to celebrate & idealize their blood-lusters. Those movies (which I hold in high esteem) now feel like cheap "ambulance chasing" thrills in comparison to the final confrontation here. Even the final seconds of Rope, the quiet, still moment in the apartment, is full of weighty implications. I can think of very few scenes in any movie that do so little, yet say so much.
But on top of all of this, the film is shot in "real time" as if one cut, a technical marvel for the time & a huge acting challenge for any time. If this movie were half as good, it would still be a miracle that they could pull it off in such a cinematic style... the fact that it IS excellent regardless makes it all that much more impressive that it was shot that way. 1917 recently garnered a lot of attention for its one-cut style, like Birdman a few years ago. Neither of those movies (again, both of which I loved) would be nearly as good without that filming/editing flair. But I think Rope could be nearly as good without it - which makes me that much more impressed that Hitchcock managed this in 1948. A style that is still wowing audiences & winning Oscars 70 years later.
I'm not sure how I rank this compared to Hitchcock's other top masterpieces (which I'd consider Vertigo and Rear Window). But it might have just become my favorite pure thriller.
If you haven't seen it, watch it. Set aside the mere 80 minutes & truly watch it. You won't be disappointed.